Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze: “We must do everything we can to achieve the opening of membership negotiations with the EU by the end of this year”

The Chair of the Committee on Ukraine’s Integration into the EU, Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, took part in the webinar “European integration, full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation: the role of the Ukrainian diaspora in fighting and overcoming challenges and threats”.

Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze noted that representatives of the diaspora can help Ukraine in the countries where they live. They can better communicate events in Ukraine and Ukraine's needs, considering historical and cultural differences, which may not always be taken into account by representatives of Ukrainian politics or civil society.

The Chair of the Committee reminded that Russia’s full-scale invasion significantly changed the mood inside Ukraine. Even Russia’s supporters finally saw its real face. Responding to Ukrainian society, the authorities applied for Ukraine's EU membership. “From the beginning of the full-scale invasion, we actively engaged not only in advocacy and attracting military assistance, but also in the work concerning granting Ukraine a candidate status”, said Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze.

She stated that obtaining the candidate status for joining the EU is a great merit of the Defence Forces, Ukrainian society and united efforts at all levels of the Ukrainian government representing the entire political spectrum. Seven conditions for Ukraine accompanied this status. “Unfortunately, at the end of December last year and at the beginning of January this year, the Chairs of the Parliament and the Government assured that the Parliament and the Government had already done everything depending on them to fulfil these seven conditions”, Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze said. In June, Ukraine received an intermediate assessment from the European Commission. And it turned out that Ukraine fulfilled only two of the seven conditions. At the same time, according to her, Ukraine has a unique chance to receive a mostly positive assessment and recommendation from the European Commission for the opening of membership negotiations by the end of this year. “I see this as a window of opportunity for Ukraine because 2024 will be the year of elections to the European Parliament, which will shift attention to other processes. It will be more and more difficult for Ukraine to make its way to the top of the agenda”, said the Chair of the Committee.

As for the role of the diaspora in supporting Ukraine, there are several important directions here, according to Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze. This is the advocacy of military aid to Ukraine. Interaction with local politicians regarding their position on supporting Ukraine. And the everyday efforts of explaining to people what is happening in Ukraine, why the war is going on, and why forcing Ukraine to peace on Putin's terms would be a catastrophic mistake. Therefore, an important task is disseminating information through personal stories. “We are very much counting on diaspora organisations and politically active Ukrainians to get involved here”, concluded the Chair of the Committee.